The Meaning Of Sacrifice

Introduction

Indeed, he does. That’s become one of my favorite hymns in our book. I know that my redeemer lives. It is a sermon in a psalm. And it is our convictions about that very thing that brings us to this place today and should cause us to give ourselves zealously and fervently to his worship and praise. I want to take you this morning to the book of Hebrews, primarily. We’re going to be looking at a number of verses in chapters 9 and 10. In fact, there may be more references this morning than you can actually follow. So you might need to have a pen ready, or if you’re a member here, wait for Mike’s email, as he will be diligently writing these things down. Hebrews 9, 18 through 22.

Therefore, even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people. Saying, This is the blood of the covenant, which God commanded you. And in the same way, he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all of the vessels of the ministry with the blood. And according to the law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.

This concept is difficult for us. I want you to imagine being of the nation of Israel under this covenant. I want you to imagine that you live 200 miles from Jerusalem. Not everybody did, of course, but that’s what I want you to imagine this morning. You live 200 miles from Jerusalem. The time has come for sacrifice. And off you go. You, your family, off you go to Jerusalem with your sacrifice. Or once you get there to secure by purchase a sacrifice to offer to God. And you go into the temple area and you make your presentation before the Lord and before his priests, and there the animal that you have secured, the animal that you have brought is slain for your sin. Wow. That’s something, isn’t it?

Animal sacrifice. I think it’s difficult for us to appreciate that part of the old covenant. I want to talk to you for a few moments this morning about the meaning of sacrifice. This actually flows out of a study on Monday night where I wanted to explain what the sacrificial system of the Old Testament was all about and all of these animal sacrifices that we read about, and this thought came to mind, and that thought came to mind, and this thought came to mind, and I thought, I need to preach that. And so here these thoughts are this morning. And I think I get it. Israel grew tired of all of that. I want you to look to the book of Malachi at the very end of your Old Testament in Malachi chapter 1.

This is the indictment that God makes of his people through Malachi the prophet. And I want you to think about the fact that this is post exilic times. This is after they have been purged from idolatry and being a very sinful people that had to be judged and punished, and they’ve been taken into Babylon, and finally they’ve returned home. And of course, the next thing that’s going to occur in the redemption history of man is John the Baptist appearing on the scene. But in this final book of the Old Testament, what issue does God have with his purged people? What issue does he have with them? Malachi 1 and verse 8. You present the blind for sacrifice. Because when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil?

And you present the lame and the sick. Is it not evil? Why not offer that to your governor? Would he be pleased with you? Or would he receive you kindly? says the Lord of hosts. And then he says in verse 10, oh that there were one among you who would shut the gate, who would close the doors is the idea, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on my altar. I am not pleased with you, says the Lord of hosts, nor will I accept an offering from you. In verse 13, you also say, My, how tiresome it is. I can just imagine them going to Jerusalem with their sacrifice and all the way. Oh, I’m so tired of this. I’m so tired of this. All of these animal sacrifices.

1. The Innocent for the Guilty

I don’t know how much they were verbalizing it, but they were certainly thinking it. My, how tiresome it is. And you disdainfully sniff at it, says the Lord of hosts. And you bring what was taken by robbery and what is lame or sick, so you bring the offering. Should I receive that from your hand? God wanted, as I shall mention in a moment, God wanted their first and their best. What was going on with all of those animal sacrifices? Several things comes to mind that I want to share with you this morning. Number one, the innocent for the guilty. With every one of those sacrifices offered in Jerusalem, with that fountain of blood that was flowing continually in the temple area, despite all of the beauty of Solomon’s temple and all of the glistening of its gold.

Blood ran everywhere. Because of these sacrifices. You want a picture of that? You go to the book of Leviticus and read about those sacrifices. It was a river of blood. And every time an individual brought an animal for sacrifice, every year on the day of atonement, when sacrifice was made for the sins of the people. Some innocent creation of God who has not deserved death pays with its life. And there you are with your animal. And it has to die for your sins.

The vicarious suffering, and that’s what we’re talking about, the innocent for the guilty. The vicarious suffering of the Savior is what Isaiah 53 is all about. I was thinking about that because I knew what I was preaching. I was thinking about that during the partaking of the Lord’s Supper.

Isaiah reveals to us in Isaiah 53, verses 5 and 6. He bore our sins in his body upon the cross, 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 24. He who knew no sin. You see, Jesus had to be our sacrifice. It’s innocent for the guilty. He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Love that verse. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 21. You want to know why you live and breathe. You want to know why you’re able to be here today? You want to know what life is about day in and day out, why you exist? It’s right there. The innocent for the guilty. He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf that you and I might become something.

2. The Necessity of Blood in Atonement

The righteousness of God in him. That verse speaks to the very point of your existence. The innocent for the guilty. But there is yet another thing. The necessity of blood in atonement. Now, don’t let that big word throw you. It simply means at one minute. Parties coming together. Harmony. At one minute. That is, blood was necessary to amend our condition. It is for the satisfaction of God’s requirements or God’s justice. It is a reparation or a repair of a wrong or an injury. That’s what atonement. And there is life in the blood. That’s why blood had to be shed. When that animal’s blood was shed, outflowed its life. They saw that. Every time a sacrifice was offered, life is in the blood. Let me tell you’ve bled before.

And I know what happens. You start bleeding. I’m bleeding. You know you’ve got to get that stopped. You’ve got to get it stopped. Or you could bleed out. Those eight to twelve pints of blood, however many you have, pretty precious. Don’t try living without them. You won’t. And that’s why when you offer just a pint of blood, most of you faint. Right? Are you one of those people that when you give your pint of blood, isn’t it amazing how your body replenishes testimony to our Creator over time? But you give that pint of blood, and even just one pint can make a difference. Life is in the blood. Leviticus 17 and verse 11. So the blood of Christ was necessary in our atonement. In the blood is life.

That’s what we read in Hebrews chapter 9. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. Now I want you to go up in the context of verse 11 of Hebrews chapter 9. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, Christ appeared. We talked about that in Titus 2 this morning. He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, out of this creation. And not through, look at this, not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood. He entered the holy place once for all. Just as those animals in the holy place are offered, Jesus enters in with his blood once for all, more on that momentarily. He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Now, I can’t do that verse justice in the next 30 minutes, but I in fact I have, I just noticed in the pages of my Bible next to that, I have the word wow next to verse 14. That’s that’s wow. The blood of Christ without blemish can cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. The necessity of blood in atonement. We are released from our sins by the blood of Christ.

Revelation chapter 1 and verse 5. That, my friends, should move us to great appreciation. And if there is a goal of this lesson this morning, it is certainly that we might appreciate what he did for us in chapter 10. Our appreciation of this, since he entered that holy place that we just read about for a new and living way inaugurated for us through the veil, the veil that separated the holy place from the most holy place. He went through the veil so that we can enter in and have access to the Father. That’s the idea. He says, since we have such a great high priest who has offered this service for us, this is what should naturally flow out of that. We shouldn’t have to force anybody or twist anybody’s arm to do this.

Let us draw near with a sincere heart. In full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience. And our bodies washed with pure water. You see how that flows out of what we just saw in Hebrews 9, the work that Christ did. Let us draw near, our hearts sprinkled clean, our bodies washed with pure water, obviously a reference to our water immersion into Christ. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised his faithful. Consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another in all the more as you see the day drawing near. While we see water, when we’re baptized into Christ, we should also by the eye of faith see blood.

We are being buried with him in baptism, into his death. That’s blood. Baptism now saves you, not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God. The things in which our mind is accusing us, I have sinned, I have transgressed the will of God. That can be cleaned, cleansed, and removed and done away because of the sprinkled blood of Jesus. Because we come into contact with the blood of his death. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we rise to walk in newness of life. So what we’ve seen is that these sacrifices were telling us the innocent for the guilty, the necessity of blood in atonement. But thirdly, oh, we’ve already read about the blood of Christ, forgot about that fly.

3. The Awful Nature of Sin

Number three. Not only do we see the innocent for the guilty, the necessity of blood and atonement, but number three, we see the awful nature of sin. Hebrews 10, verse 1. For the law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices, look at this. Year after year, which they offer continually. Make perfect those who draw near. Verse 4. Verse 3 says it was a reminder of sins. Verse 4. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. Now, when I talk about slaying the innocent for the guilty, here you are offering your sin offering. The animal is slain. This animal did not deserve this.

Okay, you did this, you did this again, you did this again, you did this again, you did this your whole life. They did it generation after generation after generation, and guess what? Sin still wasn’t fixed. The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin. If that doesn’t say anything to us, it should speak to us about the awful tragedy of sin. And I’m not just talking about the really bad things. We tend to think in terms of fornication, adultery, homosexuality, drunkenness, the worst kinds of things. But this is true of the little morsel of gossip. This is true of the little untruth, the little white lie. It is true of that little vestige of hatred and jealousy in our hearts. No matter what is the sin or the transgression, you can offer a thousand innocent limbs.

A million innocent goats. All for these. Sin could not be atoned. That’s impressive to me. All of those journeys to Jerusalem, all of the bloodshed of innocent animals, all of the cost involved in offering your very best to God. None of that was adequate. All of it together. Every animal sacrifice until the time of Christ, all together, could not fix the problem of sin. And unless we think, again, we start working in the area of degrees of sin. Listen. Adam and Eve. When sin entered the world, it wasn’t homosexuality, adultery, and fornication and drunkenness, was it? It was the simple partaking of a forbidden piece of fruit. And the rebellion in their heart that prompted it. I love Derek Kidner’s commentary on Genesis when he says, I’ll never forget, I forget a lot of things, but I don’t forget this.

When he spoke of the sin of Adam and Eve, and he said, So simple the act. So hard its undoing.

Rock of Ages, verse 2. Because it immediately came to mind in this point. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no linger? No. For some reason, when I was thinking about these lyrics, I had to get out my song book because I thought it said, could my zeal no respite? No. But that would work too. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no respite? No. Or languor? No. These for sin could not atone. Thou must save. And thou alone. In my hand, no price I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. Listen, practical point here. That’s why we should never, ever cheapen the commission of any sin in our lives. I realize that God has provided grace and pardon for our sins. But we should never forget that with the commission of any sin, the awful price that had to be paid.

4. The Cost of Redemption and the Necessity of Faith

And so I want to talk to you fourthly about the cost of redemption and the necessity of faith. You look at Leviticus chapter 1 and Leviticus chapter 22, God makes it very clear. No defect, not the lame and the sick that we read about in Malachi chapter 1. It had to be the first and the best. There is a high price tag involved in redemption. And even the first and best of their flock could not provide forgiveness for sin. You know how much faith that required? You think these people weren’t smart? You know what they knew? If you were continually offering your best in sacrifice to God, what would that do with the breeding? If you were continually offering your best in sacrifice to God. Would that not water down the gene pool?

And thus your flocks would be of lesser quality? You don’t think that cost their minds? Oh, they knew about it. Jacob knew about breeding, didn’t he? Look at that story, Genesis chapter 30. I don’t have time to go into all of that. But Jacob and Laban and dealing with their flocks, interesting, fascinating story. It didn’t matter what Jacob did. His flocks were going to be better than Laban’s. You want to know why? Because God had made the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That’s why when we read the story in Genesis 13 that Abram and Lot had to go their separate ways because why? Their flocks were so great. And there was, why is that? Oh, it wasn’t special breeding. It wasn’t that Abraham was the best at breeding flocks that there ever was.

God was blessing them. And I want to tell you, he was blessing them because they were the people of the promise. He was taking care of them. And that’s the point that Israel should have gotten in these animal sacrifices if we will offer our first and best. And that was exemplified in the very first righteous man who dies in Genesis 4. Cain offers his offering from the ground, but what did Abel do? He offered of the first and fatlings of his flock. That’s the right offering to God. You don’t worry about what’s going to happen as a result. God’s going to take care of it. You offer your first and best by faith. More on that in a moment. The ultimate offering was the first and the best.

5. Once for All

In 1 Peter chapter 1. I can’t preach the sermon without talking about 1 Peter chapter 1. As we are admonished as believers to conduct ourselves in fear during our sojourn, our stay here. And then it says, knowing, okay, why should we live in reverence before God? Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your feudal way of life inherited from your forefathers. How did you get out of that feudal way of life? But with the precious blood, as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. Now, one more point until we get to something very practical here. The emphasis in Hebrews 9 and 10 is, as we saw in our Bible class briefly, happox in the Greek is a word that meant once for all.

And that’s used in relation to the death of Christ and the blood of Christ several times here in Hebrews 9 and 10. Once for all.

Jesus Christ once and once for all.

Circumcision. Feast days, animal sacrifice. No. No, nobody was none of those Judaizing teachers. Let’s go back to offering all of those sacrifices. You can see why they wanted a mixture of the two. They love circumcision, they love feast days, but animal sacrifice. Nobody’s telling that. And Paul says, look, if you’re going to demand circumcision, you’re a debtor to the whole law. That’s his point in Galatians 5 and verse 3. You’ve got to keep the whole thing. Animal sacrifices were part of that. But they love the one time sacrifice of Christ. Jesus’ finished work of sacrifice is a whole, it’s a big part of the message of Hebrews in chapter 7 and verse 25. He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them, for it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens, who does not need daily.

Conclusion

Like those high priests who offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this he did once for all when he offered up himself. I thought, are there other things? Maybe you taught us with other things. These are five things that came to mind that God was teaching Israel in regard to the system of animal sacrifices. Now I want to come to the conclusion of this. Today, far too many who claim to be Christian, want to cheapen the nature of sacrifice. Though we don’t have to offer animals year after year like they did. There are people still with the attitude of Malachi’s day. I want to get off as cheaply and easy as possible.

Sacrifice is a word and a concept that has been excised, it has been cut out from religion today in our world. But may it never be so of us, of those who claim to be the Lord’s true people. After Paul finishes in Romans talking about the way we’re saved, the nature of justification by faith and what a marvelous system it is, versus that old Testament system of justification by works that no man could accomplish. And so he talks about this long treatise about how justification by faith works and how privileged we are to bask in it. He comes to the practical ramifications in our lives, what that now means, and the first thing he says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Giving God a pittance is the norm. Just like Israel tried to do. Here’s your sacrifice, Lord. Take it and be happy. And please give me heaven with a cherry on top. Let us not think like that. Where are areas where people don’t want to sacrifice? They don’t want to give up on their pleasure. Even if it violates God’s will or even something that might not constitute transgression per se, but will inevitably lead to it. That simply places them in harm’s way and endangers their influence with others. Nope, not going to give up my pleasure. In our homes. People don’t want to place the happiness and well-being of the spouse ahead of our own interests and desires. Little consideration is given to what the spouse needs.

What can make his or her life better? Service to one another. Oh, yeah, I’m all about service to one another if they’re going to serve me. You see, if it’s reciprocated, then I will serve. Is that the way God has dealt with us? Do you realize how many people have not reciprocated? And have we reciprocated sufficiently? Even though we are in Christ. People don’t want to expend great energy and generate great zeal to worship him, to imbibe in his word and serve faithfully among his people. Listen, I’m not going to sugarcoat anything. I can’t sugarcoat this. Living sacrifice. How do you sugarcoat that? Understanding what animal sacrifices were and what the sacrifice of Christ was. And when Jesus says, take up your cross and follow me, or you cannot be my disciple.

Look, there’s a cost involved. There’s a diligence that’s demanded. 1 Peter chapter 4, verses 7 and following. The sobriety that ought to characterize us because the end of all things is at hand. And then he says, be diligent and serve with the strength that God supplies. If any man speak, let him speak as it were the utterances of God. We need to be serious about our faith and serious about the truth and serious about our commitment. There’s no way to sugarcoat that. And there are people that don’t want to submit to God’s plan to save by grace through faith, which involves repentance and baptism. They want to hold on to their sin and hold on to their pride. Instead of saying, I choose Jesus because he left heaven to be rejected and die for me.

Listen.

Upon him and imbibe of his word too much. We cannot be too zealous unless we leave the principles of righteousness in doing so. Because our Lord deserves our zeal. He deserves our fervency. He deserves our sacrifices. And yet, so often people are saying, it’s just too much. I don’t want to give that much. And they offer the lame and the sick. Finally, the more we give of ourselves, the more blessed we will be. Do you believe that? You see, that’s what the sacrifice. That’s what was hard for him. The more we give, the more we’ll be blessed. He said, prove me now in this. Even about tithing. Bring the whole tithe into storyhouse. Give me your full tenth and see if I don’t pour out all the blessings of heaven, if I don’t open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing until it overflows.

He says, Don’t worry about that tenth you have to give up. I’m going to give you so much more than that. Do you realize that whatever extent you give yourself to the Lord, to his service, to his people, to doing right, the fight that you fight daily against temptation, that whatever you give to the Lord, you’re going to be more blessed in return. Do you believe that? That’s the promise. Don’t cheapen the sacrifice. You’ll cost yourself in the end.

Well, it all begins by our death. Thanks be to God for his grace and mercy that gives us the opportunity through the blood of Christ to be saved. But it begins with our submission to death. Dying to sin. Being baptized into Christ, rising to walk in newness of life, turning from a vain way of life. Because, what’s the motivation? Because Jesus paid the price for me. If you’re willing to commit yourself to Him and you need to be baptized into Christ this morning so that your sins might be washed in the blood of the Lamb. Won’t you come, always name and sins again?